


Honey, It's In The Stars

by BreatheSymphonies



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Day 7, Element Swap, F/M, Fluff, Iroh always got that wisdom, Zutara Week, Zutara Week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 18:22:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15563742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BreatheSymphonies/pseuds/BreatheSymphonies
Summary: “Whatever, I wish for one day you could feel what it’s like to waterbend.” Katara tells him.“Yeah, well I wish you knew what it was like to firebend for one day.” Zuko says.Katara wakes up to an alarming surprise. She is suddenly firebending and has no idea how it's possible. Zuko discovers he can waterbend and takes it worse than Katara. They run to Uncle Iroh who to them is the only logical person to bring this news to.This is for Day 7 of Zutara Week 2018! Element Swap!





	Honey, It's In The Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! This is, surprisingly, my first ever fic/oneshot for Zutara despite shipping it forever. I loved the idea of element swap since I saw the suggestion so I really wanted to write something for it! I wrote this over the last 3 nights after my busiest days at work, it being the beginning of the month and all, so I hope it's good and you enjoy it!

Early morning light peeks through the curtains, waking Katara. She opens her eyes to her favorite sight. Her husband sleeping soundly, a serene look upon his face. This is her favorite sight because Zuko looks so peaceful. There is nothing stressing him out or making him worry. He’s away from all his trying duties as Fire Lord. 

She drinks in the sight of him. His dark, messy locks in disarray from sleep. His plump lips slightly parted as he snores lightly. She remembers telling Suki how much she loves a sleepy, fresh out of bed Zuko compared to all his other looks. Suki had laughed at her, but she explained that she likes that Zuko the best because that is _her_ Zuko. She also loves post sex Zuko, but she’d never say that out loud. No one else gets to sees him so relaxed or so vulnerable. It’s for her eyes only and it makes her heart explode.

She feels as though she’ll never get tired of looking at him, his beautiful features captivating her over and over again. To think the face she ran from so many years ago would become the face she never wanted to look away from. The love she feels for him is more than she can bear sometimes, but being overwhelmed by her love for him is better than any feeling she could have.

She continues to lie there, not wanting to disturb him. They had stayed up late watching the meteor shower the night before, so she wants him to get as much rest as possible. He works too hard most days. She really should request they take a vacation.

She tries to drift back to sleep, but after an hour with no success, she gives up. She slowly gets out of bed and does a silent happy dance when she doesn’t wake Zuko in the process. She walks over to her vanity, sits down and grabs her brush. Her hair's a tangled mess that needs immediate attention. 

After she brushes through all her knots she moves to place her brush back in it’s usual place and accidently knocks over a cup of water she had left there the night before. She throws her arm out to bend the water before it splashes all over the floor, but suddenly flames shoot from her hand.

She screams from surprise and then panics as she sees the side of her wood vanity flare up. She tries to bend the water on the floor onto the vanity, but more flames shoot from her hands and she screams louder.

Suddenly Zuko is by her side, eyes wide and panicked. He quickly takes the sheets and violently pats the small flames out. He turns to her with a questioning look while she stands there with her hands over her mouth in shock.

“What the hell was that?” He asks, his voice raspy from sleep.

Katara pulls her hands away from her mouth to stare at them. She has to be dreaming. There is no reasonable explanation for what just happened. Zuko moves to grab her hands and she recoils.

“Zuko, I…” She starts, but how can she even speak the ludicrous words?

“Katara, what _happened_?” She can’t blame him for wanting her to just spit it out. She had just ripped him out of his peaceful slumber with her screams and furniture on fire.

“I- I knocked over my water cup and tried to bend it before it hit the ground and…”

“And you somehow set your vanity on fire?” He looks so confused and she huffs.

“No, I firebended!” She yells half in frustration and half in disbelief. Zuko stares at her for a moment before laughing.

“Okay, I feel like I should be more annoyed about being abruptly woken up to you accidently catching our stuff on fire because of some ridiculous thing you were probably doing, but that is a really bad joke, babe.”

“I’m serious, Zuko! I tried to bend the water, but sent flames into the vanity instead! Then I tried to bend the water again to put out the fire but more flames happened and that’s when I started screaming.”

“Katara, that’s impossible.” Zuko scowls. She can see how much he wants to go back to bed on his grumpy face.

“I know it is! That’s why I’m freaking out! Here, watch this!” She steps back and faces away from the vanity and their canopy bed to make sure nothing else catches on fire and makes a few movement until she bends fire.

She screams again, still in shock by it. She turns to Zuko whose eyes are wide and his mouth gaping open. The flame was out of control and quite large so she still manages to catch a little bit of fabric on their canopy on fire after trying to avoid it. She quickly runs to put it out.

Zuko gapes at her for another minute before freaking out.

“What the hell? How in the world are you doing that? What is happening?” He rambles on before Katara grabs him by the shoulders to steady him.

“Look at me. Calm down. If anything I should be the one freaking out like this. What are we going to do, Fire Lord?”

He sees the fear in her eyes and collects himself. He has to be strong for his wife and find answers. He can’t stand seeing her so afraid.

“Okay, first let me take you to the courtyard so I can teach you how to control it a little bit so you don’t set anything else on fire. Then we can figure out from there what to do.”

“No we need to go see someone about this!” Katara argues.

“We will once I help you control yourself so your not shooting fire at everything and everyone. Plus, I don’t even know who we’d go about this, so this will help us brainstorm where to go from here.”

Katara doesn’t say anything and scowls as they get dressed and make their way to the courtyard.

 

“You know, instead of showing me some firebending tricks, why don’t we try figuring out _why_ I’m firebending?” Katara asks in frustration.

“I’m not teaching you tricks, I’m trying to help you control it so you don’t set this entire place on fire.” Zuko sighs.

“Fine, but after this we’re finding someone to help me. Maybe we can ask your uncle. Maybe he’s heard of something like this before.” 

Zuko can see it in her eyes how scared she is right now. He can’t imagine what it must feel like to wake up bending a completely different element. He grabs her hand to calm her.

“We’ll figure this out, my love.”

“What if we don’t, Zuko? What if I never bend water again? No offense, but I really don’t want to be a firebender. It doesn’t feel right. I feel like I’m missing a part of me.” Katara looks away as a tear falls down her face.

Zuko pulls her in for a hug, kissing the top of her head. “We’ll find a way to fix this.”

She pulls back and gives him a weak smile. He swipes away another tear with his thumb and cradles her face as he leans down to place his lips upon hers.

“I’ve been thinking, what if it had something to do with the moon last night?” He asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, remember how I said it looked weird during the meteor shower. Something was off about it. It gave me the creeps to be honest.”

“That’s because it makes me stronger and able to whoop your ass even more.” Katara jokes.

“Okay, sure. I let you win occasionally. What kind of husband would I be if I always beat my wife in a sparring match?”

“Keep telling yourself that, hun. You’ve never won against me.”

“That’s a lie. Guess we’ll have to get you back to normal so we can settle this.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“Okay, first lets teach you how to not set things on fire. I’ll explain it and show you a few times and then you’ll try.”

He quickly explains what she can do to calm herself and not shoot flames everywhere. He then grabs her hand to bring it up in front of her. She holds her hand there and looks at him with curiosity.

“Okay, so how about we just make a small flame in our hands. I’ll go first. Just breathe normally and imagine there is water there and you want to move it around. Just use the power you feel inside, just like when you’re waterbending and imagine the small flame flaring up in your hand. Like this.” Zuko says before showing her.

Or he tires to show her, but nothing happens. Katara sees confusion on his face, but he readies himself and tries again. 

Nothing.

“Um… Zuko? Aren’t you supposed to be showing me something? Something like this?” She asks as she does everything he just told her to do and bring a tiny flame her her palm. Zuko looks alarmed now.

“What the hell?” He gasps before turning and trying to fire bend by the pond. Nothing happens as he moves.

“WHAT? THE? HELL?” He yells, each word a question as he throws his arms out trying to bend.

“Zuko?” Katara is getting worried all over again, especially when Zuko’s movements get more and more aggressive as he tries to firebend.

“WHY IS NOTHING HAPPENING?” He screams before throwing he arm straight towards the pond. 

Suddenly the water splits and splashes violently to the sides, disturbing the turtleducks that were floating around. Zuko’s eyes go wide and he hears an audible gasp from Katara.

“Zuko, you just…” Katara starts to say as her hands come up to cover her mouth.

“What just happened?” Zuko asks in disbelief.

“You _waterbended_!” Katara yells.

Zuko just stands there, still in his stance and staring at the rippling water. Katara runs up to him and grabs his arm.

“Zuko, try it again! I need to know if that really happened.”

“No! This is impossible!” He finally moves from his stance and away from the pond.

“ZUKO!” Katara grabs his arm and pulls him back. “Try it again!”

“No, this is ridiculous.”

“So when I firebend it’s strange and something we can look into, but when you waterbend it’s impossible and ridiculous?” She asks angrily.

Zuko looks away in embarrassment. He knows he shouldn’t have reacted this way, but he’s still in shock. Turns out he doesn’t have to imagine what it would feel like to wake up bending another element. 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have acted like that. I just…”

“You don’t know what to think or feel. I know, I just said this before. You don’t feel right.”

“You’re right. It felt wrong. I do feel like something is missing. Katara, what are we going to do?” He looks at her with the same fear that was in her eyes.

“First, try to waterbend one more time to confirm you actually can and then we’re looking for your Iroh immediately.”

Zuko nods and Katara backs away from him. He takes a deep breath and looks at the water. Instead of disturbing the whole pond, he focuses on bringing a small bit of water up. He doesn’t really know what he’s doing, but he’s watched his wife enough to copy her movements. It isn’t long before a small spiral of water makes its way from the pond to his hand. He stops abruptly, pulling his hand back to himself. Inspecting it as the water splashes back into the pond.

“Okay. Let’s go find Uncle.” He says and turns on his heel. Katara runs after him as they go to locate Iroh.

 

They find Iroh in his study, drinking his jasmine tea. He grins wide as they enter. They don’t get to visit for reasons other than business often, so he’s delighted to see them.

“Good morning, you two. What brings the two of you here?”

“Hello, Uncle. We, uh- have something bizarre to ask you.” Zuko rubs the back of his neck. His uncle can see he’s nervous about something.

“What kind of bizarre things could you be asking me about this early in the day?” Iroh inquires.

“Um… Iroh have you- have you ever heard of someone… who- uh- is a waterbender who suddenly started firebending? Or vice versa?” Katara asks.

Iroh studies the both of them for a moment before saying, “I can’t say that I have. Why do you ask?”

“Because I can waterbend.” Zuko blurts out. 

“And I can firebend.” Katara sheepishly adds.

Iroh looks shocked, but stays calm unlike they had. He purses his lips and stokes his beard for a minute before speaking.

“When did you discover this?”

“This morning when I set my vanity on fire trying to bend water from a cup I knocked over.” Katara says.

“I found out ten minutes ago when I tried to help her not set stuff on fire, but bended the pond water instead.” Zuko adds.

“Hmm… and there was no sign of this before this morning?”

“No.” They both say.

“And neither of you can bend the element you usually bend?”

“Nope.” Zuko shakes his head.

“Did you guys do anything during the meteor shower last night?

Katara shrugs. “We watched it together, but that’s it. What do you mean when you ask if we did anything?”

“Are you asking if we did some weird dance or ceremony to switch elements? That’s ridiculous.” Zuko grumbles.

“Did you say anything about switching elements?” Iroh questions.

“The only thing we said was- wait… Oh no. Zuko…” Katara turns to Zuko in a panic.

Zuko realizes what she’s saying without forming the words. He remembers what they said last night during the meteor shower.

 

They were lying in the grass at their secret spot on a cliff near the water. They had wanted to be alone while they watched the meteor shower. Zuko had wanted it to be a romantic occasion. It doesn’t get more romantic than watching shooting stars with your wife.

They had been talking about nothing really. Work, family, and friends. The usual. The shower had really started to pick up when they somehow got onto the topic of which benders were the best and which element was the best to bend.

“Waterbending is the best. It’s the superior bending. Also it’s beautiful.” Katara had said.

“Firebending isn’t be beautiful? I think firebending, when done the way it’s intended to be done, is more beautiful than waterbending.” Zuko argued.

“No way! Waterbending is the best. The way you feel when you waterbend is magical.”

“When you firebend, it’s like you’re lighting up inside and releasing all that light into the open. It’s amazing.”

“Whatever, I wish for one day you could feel what it’s like to waterbend.” Katara tells him.

“Yeah, well I wish you knew what it was like to firebend for one day.” Zuko says.

They look at each other and smile. 

“You could just describe it to me more so I can get an idea of how it feels.” Katara laces her fingers with his.

“Only if you explain how waterbending makes you feel magical.” Zuko smirks.

“Shut up.” She blushes and looks away, but Zuko places his hand under her chin and guides her into a soft kiss.

The rest of the night had gone on like that. Talking nonsense while stealing kisses. They never thought anything would come out of their discussion.

 

Now the two of them sit staring at each other in disbelief. Iroh chuckles behind his desk.

“What if this doesn’t last only one day? What if this is permanent?” Katara asks.

“We only wished for one day. It should only last one day.” Zuko assures her.

“How do you know though? How do we even know that it was our silly wishes that we weren’t even serious about that did this?”

“It has to be those stupid wishes because what else could it be? Yeah, wishing upon a shooting star and it coming true sounds insane, but us swapping elements is even more insane! So we can’t say it’s not what happened.”

“I think you have something wonderful on your hands here.” Iroh chimes in. Zuko looks at him, puzzled by his words, while Katara stares at him like he turned into a lion turtle. He sighs and continues.

“You may have been joking when you wished the other could experience your bending, but now that it has become a reality, I think you should embrace it and really experience what the other’s bending is like. It will help you understand and appreciate each other even more. You’ll get to learn new things about each other just by feeling what the other person feels when they bend their element. That’s why I said you have something wonderful on your hands. Even if it ends up being for just one day.”

The couple sits up straight at Iroh’s words and they look at each other. He is right and this makes them smiles at each other.

“Thanks, Uncle.” Zuko says with gratitude.

“I knew there was a reason you were the first person we wanted to go to about this. Thank you.” Katara smiles.

“Anytime you two. Now go learn about each other. You may only have today for this opportunity.” Iroh dismisses them. They express their gratitude again as they leave his study.

 

Zuko and Katara make their way back to the courtyard and do exactly what Iroh told them to do and spend the whole day bending. They quickly teach each other the basic fundamentals and play around with the elements. 

Katara feels the burning passion that her husband exudes in everything he does. Now she knows why he is so intense and wholehearted. It makes her heart race and her skin tingle. She’s fallen even more in love with him in just these few hours.

Zuko loves the tranquility that comes with waterbending. He’s always admired how his wife could make split decisions in the middle of a hectic situation, but now he knows how she is able to do so. He feels how waterbending brings a calmness to him. He thinks about their battle with Azula and how quick Katara was and how much composure she had. His love and appreciation for her soars.

They bend until it’s dark and they’re starving. They have a dinner and go collapse in bed together. They talk about everything they felt and how much they love each other. They fall asleep tangled in the sheets. The morning had been alarming, but the night is filled with reassurance. Whether they stay this way or go back to normal, they’ll face it head on together.

 

Katara is the first to wake, just like every other morning. She again leaves the bed slowly and quietly to not disturb her husband. She walks to the courtyard and sits by the pond. She’s nervous, but she has to try it. She has to try and bend the water.

Even after bending fire all day yesterday, her muscle memory kicks in and she feels the familiar feeling in her body as the water comes to life. She smiles as the water flows around her. She flings the water back into the pond and sighs.

“Is it weird if I say I’m kind of disappointed?” Zuko’s voice startles her.

“You’re up already?” She asks.

“Yeah, I don’t like sleeping without you next to me. You relax me.” He answers as he sits next to her.

Katara smiles and lies her head on his shoulder. “Must be because I’m a waterbender.”

“Must be.” He turns to kiss the top of her head.

“It’s not weird. I do feel a little disappointed. Bending fire was fun, but I’m so glad to be back to normal.”

“Yeah, I missed my fire.” Zuko says as he brings a small flame into his hand.

“I’m so glad that our unintentional wishes upon the stars came true though. I feel closer to you which I didn’t think was possible. I love you so much, Zuko.”

“I love you too, Katara. You balance me out and I don’t think I could live without you. You’re my everything.”

Katara picks her head up to look at the love of her life. He is smiling her favorite smile as he cups her face. She leans in to share a passionate kiss with him. She never thought she’d feel this amount of love for someone, but the were clearly meant to be together and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Let me know what you think!


End file.
